New visa rules in spotlight as arrival figures plummet

A 7% drop in tourism arrivals for the first quarter of this year as announce by StatsSA should force government to rethink new visa rules, says the DA.

Overseas tourism arrivals for the first quarter of 2015 are down 7% from 632,642 last year to 589,802 this year.

According to StatsSA the markets the hardest hit are China and India, which are down 38% and 13% respectively. For the first quarter of the year, South Africa saw 19,104 arrivals from this market, compared with last year’s 30,767.

Traditional tourism markets are also down. The UK dropped nearly 11% to 122,719 arrivals from 129,149 the year before. Germany dropped by 3% to 85,254 from 87,949 in 2014. The US dropped 7,86% during the first quarter of the year, with 64,125 arrivals compared with last year’s 69,592.

While government officials are blaming factors such as the Ebola virus for the fall, opposition parties say the blame should be placed firmly with new draconic visa regulations.

The DA’s Shadow Minister for Tourism, James Vos, says he will not stand back while ANC policy destroys one of South Africa’s key job-creating sectors. Tourism generates 9% of South Africa’s GDP and employs 1.5 million South Africans. It is for this reason, says Vos, that new visa regulations should be abandoned. “According to industry, 1 job is created for every 12 arrivals. In a country with a 36% unemployment rate, this potential to create jobs must not be jeopardised.”

Vos says there are alternatives to the current regulations, which would not harm the tourism industry. The DA has made several submissions to streamline tourist facilitation by proposing the introduction of electronic visas and biometrics on arrival. These are being ignored.